Coffin Up For A Decent Send Off

Ghanaians know how to give someone a good send off. ‘Fantasy Coffins’ are all the rage and anyone who’s anyone is getting buried in a dead bed that’s shaped like a coke bottle or a chicken. Christoph Miensa Kofi Azornu was buried in a Palm Fruit shaped coffin. His son Ruben explained: "However expensive it is, we feel that is the last way of according him respect." His father harvested palm fruits for a living.

Families have also been known to advertise the time and date of a funeral (with an accompanying picture of the deceased) in Newspapers and on billboards to ensure a good turnout, but it’s the specialised coffin that offers the most prestigious farewell. "If you can't acquire it, you can at least be buried in it," says Kwame Labi, a research fellow at the University of Ghana's Institute of African Studies. Well I haven’t acquired shit so far, so I guess that makes for a rancid but cheap ceremony.